Twitter - who can see my @replies ?

Forums › Off topic › Twitter - who can see my @replies ?

simon14

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#80868 5-Apr-2011 14:08

If i reply to a tweet starting with @XXXX, who can see this reply? Every one of my followers?

I sometimes see others @replies but not always - how does it work?

Stu

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#455533 5-Apr-2011 14:10

In your scenario, only if your followers also follow the person your mention (@xxxx)

simon14

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#455534 5-Apr-2011 14:11

BigHammer: In your scenario, only if your followers also follow the person your mention (@xxxx)

It all makes sense now - thanks.

Stu

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#455537 5-Apr-2011 14:14

If your tweet is just a sentence and doesn't start with a twitter name (@xxx) but you do mention someone (@xxxx) in the tweet, then anyone following you can see the tweet.

muppet

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#455552 5-Apr-2011 15:06

If you are using Tweetdeck User Streams API, it's possible to see your friends @ replies to anyone, even people you don't follow.

Just FYI. The downside to this is you get every tweet in real time.

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#455711 5-Apr-2011 22:52

BigHammer: If your tweet is just a sentence and doesn't start with a twitter name (@xxx) but you do mention someone (@xxxx) in the tweet, then anyone following you can see the tweet.

it doesnt matter if you start the sentence with a twitter name or not. all @ replies are public. if you follow someone, you will see all their tweets in your timeline, including ones that start with an @xxx name.

if you want a non-public tweet, you use a direct message "D xxx" instead of "@xxx"

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Stu

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#455719 5-Apr-2011 23:09

Not talking public vs private. Just what the OPs followers will see in their timelines.

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Snowflake

#455725 5-Apr-2011 23:15

BigHammer: Not talking public vs private. Just what the OPs followers will see in their timelines.

well my main point is that the OPs followers will still see their tweets whether they start with a twittername or whether it is in the middle of the sentence.

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#455727 5-Apr-2011 23:23

Of course they'll see tweets @mentioning THEM, but they won't see the OPs tweet if they don't follow the person that's @mentioned at the beginning of the OPs sentence, unless they're also @mentioned in the tweet.

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#455731 5-Apr-2011 23:32

BigHammer: Of course they'll see tweets @mentioning THEM, but they won't see the OPs tweet if they don't follow the person that's @mentioned at the beginning of the OPs sentence, unless they're also @mentioned in the tweet.

Unless, as muppet said, people are using TweetDeck in which case anyone following the OP, or who has the OP in a list may be seeing the replies.

scottjpalmer

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#455732 5-Apr-2011 23:33

Regs: if you follow someone, you will see all their tweets in your timeline, including ones that start with an @xxx name.

This is not correct, Twitter changed this some time ago (years?) to large outcry . . .

You can go to their twitter.com/username page and see all their @someone tweets but they won't show in your timeline unless you follow the person being @'d . . . as Stu said.

EDIT: ooooh hot topic, as above :-)

Stu

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#455745 6-Apr-2011 00:23

This comment is not to anyone in particular, so please don't take it as such.

The OP did not mention a specific twitter client, so my answer was based around general twitter use. As we all know, Tweetdeck is not twitter, it is a client. A very handy client at that. A handy client with cool features and it is the one I mostly use on my android phone and desktop (standalone and also the Chrome plugin).

Forgetting Tweetdeck for a moment, if you look specifically at the timeline of tweets of someone you follow (as Scott says, on their twitter.com/username page), you will of course see all public messages from that person. Looking at your single timeline (say, at twitter.com) showing tweets of everyone you follow, in general it will not show tweets directed (tweets beginning with @mentions) to people you don't follow. If you do happen to also be @mentioned in that same tweet, I'm pretty sure it will appear in your @Mentions list on the twitter site but not in your timeline (can't confirm on my phone at this time, so forgive me if I'm wrong here. It's late and I'm tired). What a client may display in the timeline in this case could differ between clients, and settings within those clients.

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#455757 6-Apr-2011 06:40

@Bighammer: You're right, but the way that Tweetdeck manages to achieve what it does (showing all @ replies a user posts, regardless of you following them) is because it's using Twitter's API's. Tweetdeck isn't doing anything special, it's just using the new UserStreams API that Twitter have made available.

Most clients (and the website) don't make use of the new UserStreams API, thus the answer "You'll only see @ replies to yourself and to people you also follow" is how most people exerience Twitter.

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